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Job
1:21 (NRSV)
- Initial response to the loss of children, servants, and possessions
- Initial response to the physical ailments of his body and subsequent to other losses
- After seven days of mourning. What does Job complain about?
- His birth
- Not being stillborn
- Not being able to die
- What has changed?
- Observations:
- He is blaming God for his struggles
- Observations:
- He is in a lot of pain
- He wants to give up on life
- He is not nearly the picture of stoicism and faith that we say before
- Observations:
- He is in bad shape
- He believes he will die soon
- He is bitter
- He is complaining
- He HATES, LOATHES life
- Observations:
- This is one of the things that God challenges Job later (God's understanding versus Job's understanding)
- Which makes you wonder if Job is just saying it or if he really understands it
- At the end, his response seems to suggest that he is just repeating dogma, but now he really knows
- Job complains that he is not tangible
- Observations:
- This is the second area where God challenges Job (strength)
- I think the point here and in the previous, is not that God is wise or strong, it is that Job is not. He must rely on God no matter how wealthy (powerful) or smart he believes himself to be
- He recognizes God's power, but does recognize his limitations
- So is this true?
- Not everything Job says is true either
- God has given man what he wants, a world in which he does not rule. Yet, Job blames God and not man's rebellion
- Observations:
- Job's bitterness seems to be growing
- He is questioning God
- He is certainly blaming God for what has happened to him
- Observations:
- It is getting a little testy at this moment after Zophar, the last of the three, has spoken. Eliphaz will respond next
- Job's friends are not helping by condemning him for his words, his emotions, and implying that he has done something to deserve the suffering
- Observations:
- I like this passage. He is already changing. He recognizes God's sovereignty
- Notice the mixture of feelings. Job stills sees God as his witness even though he blames God for his misery
- This is a very typical response
- I believed in God, yet I felt I could talk of my bitterness without injury / error to God (or anyone else)
- It really is an expression of faith -- to blame God and then say you trust him
- Observations:
- Some readers of Job’s words… have accused Job of blasphemy. However blasphemy is “any remark deliberately mocking or contemptuous of God.” Job was neither mocking God nor was he being contemptuous of God. He was simply describing God as he perceived Him to be. He could not understand why God was apparently treating him unjustly, and he repeatedly asked God to solve this mystery for him. (Constable, T. (2003). Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible (Job 19:7))
- What is Job's need?
- To be loved
- To be accepted again
- To have pity, not to attack him for how he has responded or some perceived error
- Observations:
- Again, Job still trust in God even as he directs his anger against God and against his friends
- This is this dichotomy of faith: honesty, anger, and still trust
- This is why Job is recognized by God, not because of his early stoic response
- Observation:
- Job says that life is unfair
- Observation:
- One, Job does still trust in God as a judge
- Two, Job feels he could argue his case with God
- Three, Job does not seem to understand that God is omnipresent or relational (as opposed to beyond us)
- This is a long section where Job complains that God does not judge the wicked on earth. At the end of the section he seems to contradict himself that the wicked are judged. In which case, his complaint is that they are not judged sooner
- The gist of his argument is "why does not God do something sooner?"
- In Job 29, Job speaks of his past blessedness. In Chp 30, he speaks of his present misery. Chp 31 is a long section about his innocence
- This previous section does bring up wise living and wealth
- Job's point is that he had not sinned, but character issues are not always sin
- Job does not see that he has trusted in wealth. He does recognize his actions as sin. The question that I raised at this point, does Job really know? Or are God's actions preemptive?
- These are Job's final words (almost) as he and his friends end their argument
- Observations:
- The words "like a prince" seem to suggest that Job can stand before God and present his case
- Be careful in your choice of words when comforting someone in pain
- Don't be prescriptive
- Don't minimize the pain
- Don't try to find silver linings
- Be honest with God in your pain. Don't try to be an image of what you think is the right way to respond to diversity. Job is credited for his faith and he is not the picture people tend to think of him (he is far from the stoic person of the early chapters
21 He said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there; the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
10 But he said to her, “You speak as any foolish woman would speak. Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
2 Job said:
3 “Let the day perish in which I was born,
and the night that said,
‘A man-child is conceived.’
11 “Why did I not die at birth,
come forth from the womb and expire?
Job 3:20–21 (NRSV)
20 “Why is light given to one in misery,
and life to the bitter in soul,
21 who long for death, but it does not come,
and dig for it more than for hidden treasures;
4 For the arrows of the Almighty are in me;
my spirit drinks their poison;
the terrors of God are arrayed against me.
8 “O that I might have my request,
and that God would grant my desire;
9 that it would please God to crush me,
that he would let loose his hand and cut me off!
10 This would be my consolation;
I would even exult in unrelenting pain;
for I have not denied the words of the Holy One.
5 My flesh is clothed with worms and dirt;
my skin hardens, then breaks out again.
6 My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle,
and come to their end without hope.
7 “Remember that my life is a breath;
my eye will never again see good.
8 The eye that beholds me will see me no more;
while your eyes are upon me, I shall be gone.
11 “Therefore I will not restrain my mouth;
I will speak in the anguish of my spirit;
I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
Job 7:16 (NRSV)
16 I loathe my life; I would not live forever.
Let me alone, for my days are a breath.
7 who commands the sun, and it does not rise;
who seals up the stars;
8 who alone stretched out the heavens
and trampled the waves of the sea;
9 who made the Bear and Orion,
the Pleiades and the chambers of the south;
10 who does great things beyond searching out,
and marvelous things beyond number.
11 Behold, he passes by me, and I see him not;
he moves on, but I do not perceive him.
16 If I summoned him and he answered me,
I would not believe that he was listening to my voice.
17 For he crushes me with a tempest
and multiplies my wounds without cause;
18 he will not let me get my breath,
but fills me with bitterness.
19 If it is a contest of strength, behold, he is mighty!
If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him?
22 It is all one; therefore I say,
he destroys both the blameless and the wicked.
23 When disaster brings sudden death,
he mocks at the calamity of the innocent.
24 The earth is given into the hand of the wicked;
he covers the eyes of its judges—
if it is not he, who then is it?
(9:32-35) is an
interesting discussion on God's justice
I will give free utterance to my complaint;
I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
2 I will say to God, Do not condemn me;
let me know why you contend against me.
3 Does it seem good to you to oppress,
to despise the work of your hands
and favor the schemes of the wicked?
2 What you know, I also know;
I am not inferior to you.
3 But I would speak to the Almighty,
and I desire to argue my case with God.
4 As for you, you whitewash with lies;
all of you are worthless physicians.
5 If you would only keep silent,
that would be your wisdom!
11 God gives me up to the ungodly,
and casts me into the hands of the wicked.
12 I was at ease, and he broke me in two;
he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces;
he set me up as his target;
…
18 “O earth, do not cover my blood;
let my outcry find no resting place.
19 Even now, in fact, my witness is in heaven,
and he that vouches for me is on high.
4 And even if it is true that I have erred,
my error remains with me.
5 If indeed you magnify yourselves against me,
and make my humiliation an argument against me,
6 know then that God has put me in the wrong,
and closed his net around me.
17 My breath is repulsive to my wife;
I am loathsome to my own family.
18 Even young children despise me;
when I rise, they talk against me.
19 All my intimate friends abhor me,
and those whom I loved have turned against me.
20 My bones cling to my skin and to my flesh,
and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
21 Have pity on me, have pity on me, O you my friends,
for the hand of God has touched me!
22 Why do you, like God, pursue me,
never satisfied with my flesh?
25 For I know that my Redeemer lives,
and that at the last he will stand upon the earth;
26 and after my skin has been thus destroyed,
then in my flesh I shall see God,
27 whom I shall see on my side,
and my eyes shall behold, and not another.
My heart faints within me!
23 One dies in full prosperity,
being wholly at ease and secure,
24 his loins full of milk
and the marrow of his bones moist.
25 Another dies in bitterness of soul,
never having tasted of good.
26 They lie down alike in the dust,
and the worms cover them.
2 “Today also my complaint is bitter;
his hand is heavy despite my groaning.
3 Oh, that I knew where I might find him,
that I might come even to his dwelling!
4 I would lay my case before him,
and fill my mouth with arguments.
5 I would learn what he would answer me,
and understand what he would say to me.
6 Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power?
No; but he would give heed to me.
7 There an upright person could reason with him,
and I should be acquitted forever by my judge.
and why do those who know him never see his days?
16 “And now my soul is poured out within me;
days of affliction have taken hold of me.
17 The night racks my bones,
and the pain that gnaws me takes no rest.
18 With violence he seizes my garment;
he grasps me by the collar of my tunic.
19 He has cast me into the mire,
and I have become like dust and ashes.
20 I cry to you and you do not answer me;
I stand, and you merely look at me.
21 You have turned cruel to me;
with the might of your hand you persecute me.
22 You lift me up on the wind, you make me ride on it,
and you toss me about in the roar of the storm.
Job 31:5–8 (ESV) — 5 “If I have walked with falsehood
and my foot has hastened to deceit;
6 (Let me be weighed in a just balance,
and let God know my integrity!)
7 if my step has turned aside from the way
and my heart has gone after my eyes,
and if any spot has stuck to my hands,
8 then let me sow, and another eat,
and let what grows for me be rooted out.
24 “If I have made gold my trust,
or called fine gold my confidence;
25 if I have rejoiced because my wealth was great,
or because my hand had gotten much;
…
28 this also would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges,
for I should have been false to God above.
35 O that I had one to hear me!
(Here is my signature! Let the Almighty answer me!)
O that I had the indictment written by my adversary!
36 Surely I would carry it on my shoulder;
I would bind it on me like a crown;
37 I would give him an account of all my steps;
like a prince I would approach him.
APPLICATION:
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